All attempts to identify and characterize the elements of the Greek city-state in the course of history involve elements from many different historical sources, as well as the testimony of archaeological science, the work of which is partly the reconstruction of images of the past based on the elements brought to the surface through excavations. Undoubtedly in many cases the testimonies or assumptions made in the light of new findings often clash or reshape and this means that one cannot be absolute in the course of one’s associations, especially when considering periods that extend far beyond current historical “limits”. Undoubtedly the city was not an exclusively Greek institution. Organized cities existed in much older periods than those claimed by Greek history with living and dynamic mythology and were considered by the peoples who inhabited them literally and figuratively axis of the world (axis mundi). The difference lies in the fact that even with their clear political and social disadvantages -seen from the point of view of the present time- the Greek cities in their best moments bequeathed to modern culture ideas such as tolerance of particularity, living interest in the course community and passion for independence. How much we have adopted or developed these ideas as a modern culture is a different story.

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